Dr. Anthony Fauci, the medical advisor to the Presidents of the United States, won the Dan David Prize for the Present Dimension in the amount of one million dollars

Dr. Fauci has been advising presidents for 40 years since Reagan, and is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, when last year he promoted the fight against Corona, despite the restrictions imposed by President Trump

Prof. Ariel Porat, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dan David Prize and President of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Itamar Rabinovitch, Chairman of the Dan David Foundation, announced this week (Monday, 15.02.2021) the winners of the prize for 2021, awarded this year 20. The award will be presented in a celebratory online ceremony on May 9, 2021.

Against the background of the Corona epidemic and its consequences, it was decided that the Dan David Prize for 2021 will focus on the fields of health and medicine. The winners are Prof. Selig Ashchar, Dr. Carl John and Dr. Steven Rosenberg who revolutionized the field of immunotherapy treatments against cancer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the White House task force to fight against Corona, and the historians Prof. Alison Bashford, Prof. Catherine Park and Prof. Keith Vailo who illuminated the study of the past in a new light - each in his own field.

Present Time Dimension: Public Health

The global outbreak of the Corona epidemic illustrated that infectious diseases can pose a threat to our lives, and emphasized the need for increased investment in disease prevention, due to the economic savings inherent in it and its additional benefits that resonate far beyond the health system. The field of public health focuses on the health of entire populations, and promotes a healthy lifestyle, disease research and treatment of infectious diseases.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the USA and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the USA. Fauci is a physician, researcher, and immunologist, who has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the USA since 1984. Over the years, Fauci has contributed greatly to scientific and clinical research in these fields, and is one of the most cited researchers in the world in the field of biomedicine. The award is given to him as the only winner in the category for his extraordinary contribution to AIDS research, for building the presidential emergency plan to fight AIDS that saved millions of people around the world, for leading the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for his fight to promote innovative medical approaches such as mRNA vaccines that are currently given to millions around the world, and for his brave defense of the science that was attacked a lot during the corona crisis.

The prize committee did not specify what attacks there were on science during the Corona period, but Fauci's name became a target in the eyes of former President Donald Trump, who limited his action after he refused to downplay the severity of the epidemic and make optimistic statements, lacking cover, as he described in an interview that took place the day after President Biden took office .

Prof. Ariel Porat, President of Tel Aviv University and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dan David Award: "The corona epidemic has posed new challenges to humanity and therefore we have decided to honor this year the fields of health and medicine that are at the forefront of the war against the virus. International committees chose the winners due to their groundbreaking research and their extraordinary contribution to humanity in these fields, in the three dimensions of time, past, present and future."

Ariel David, son of Dan David The deceased: "We saw it as appropriate to address the challenges posed by the corona epidemic. We chose to do this this year while remaining faithful to the broad and diverse approach that distinguishes the award, and to recognize achievements from a variety of fields while focusing on health, medicine and epidemiology."

The winners were chosen by three international expert committees. Prof. Marie Fissel, from the Department of History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University chaired the committee of experts in the field of the history of health and medicine, Prof. Elizabeth Miller, from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology at the School of Epidemiology and Population Health in London chaired the committee of experts in the field of public health, and Prof. Marie Claire King, from the Department of Genetic Medicine at the University of Washington, and winner of the Dan David Award for 2018 chaired the committee of experts in the field of molecular medicine.

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• Details on the awards committee's decisions on past winners
• Reasons of the Dan David Prize Committee for Dimension Atid

• Why is it so important to vaccinate?
• Misinformation campaigns are murky mixtures of truth, lies and sincere beliefs - lessons from the epidemic
• An experimental drug for Ebola achieved good results in monkeys